Blinken meets with Chinese counterpart after criticizing Beijing’s “escalation” of actions in the South China Sea

Laos:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Saturday during a regional summit in Laos, hours after criticizing Beijing’s “increasing and illegal actions” in the South Sea China.

Blinken and Wang shook hands and exchanged greetings on camera but made no comments before moving into closed-door talks in what will be their sixth meeting since June 23, when Blinken visited Beijing in a significant sign of improvement in tense relations. between the countries of the world. two largest economies.

While Blinken singled out China for its actions against the U.S. defense ally the Philippines in the South China Sea during a meeting with his Southeast Asian counterparts early Saturday, he also praised both countries for their diplomacy after Manila completed a troop resupply mission in an area also claimed by Beijing.

The troop presence has for years angered China, which has repeatedly clashed with the Philippines over Manila’s missions to a Navy ship stranded on Second Thomas Shoal, causing regional concern about an escalation.

The two sides this week reached an agreement on how to conduct these missions.

“We are pleased to take note of today’s successful replenishment of the Second Thomas Shoal, which is the product of an agreement reached between the Philippines and China,” Blinken told ASEAN foreign ministers.

“We applaud that and hope to see this continue moving forward.”

Situation in Gaza is ‘terrible’

Blinken and Wang on Saturday attended the security-focused ASEAN Regional Forum in Laos alongside diplomats from major powers including Russia, India, Australia, Japan, Europe, Britain and others, before addressing the meeting .

Blinken previously said the United States was “working intensely every day” to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and find a path to more lasting peace and security.

His remarks follow those of Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who said the need for sustainable peace was urgent and that international law should apply to everyone. The comment from the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation was a veiled reference to recent rulings by two international courts on Israeli offensives in Gaza.

“We cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza,” she said.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in fighting in Gaza since Israel launched its incursion, according to Palestinian health authorities, who do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

Israeli authorities estimate that around 14,000 fighters from fighting groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, were killed or taken prisoner, in a force they estimated to have numbered more than 25,000 at the start of the war.

The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping about 250 others, according to Israeli records.

Also in Laos, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said directives on the operation of US nuclear assets on the Korean peninsula would certainly raise regional security concerns.

Lavrov, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap, said he had not been informed about the details of the plan, which worries Russia.

“So far we have not even been able to get an explanation of what this means, but there is no doubt that it causes additional anxiety,” he said, according to the new Russian state agency RIA.

‘This is not sustainable’

Ahead of Saturday’s two summits, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong urged Myanmar’s military rulers to follow a different path and end an intensifying civil war, pressing the generals to respect their commitment to follow ASEAN’s consensual five-point peace plan.

The conflict pits Myanmar’s well-equipped armed forces against a loose alliance of ethnic minority rebel groups and an armed resistance movement that has been gaining ground and testing the generals’ ability to govern.

The junta has largely ignored the peace effort promoted by ASEAN and the 10-member bloc has hit a wall as all parties refuse to enter into dialogue.

“We see the instability, the insecurity, the deaths, the pain that is being caused by the conflict,” Wong told reporters.

“My message from Australia to the regime is that this is not sustainable for you or your people.”

An estimated 2.6 million people have been displaced by the fighting. The junta has been condemned for excessive force in its airstrikes against civilian areas and accused of atrocities, which it dismissed as Western disinformation.

ASEAN issued a statement on Saturday, two days after its top diplomats met, stressing that it was united behind its peace plan for Myanmar, saying it was confident in its special envoy’s determination to reach “an inclusive peaceful resolution and lasting” to the conflict.

It condemned violence against civilians and urged all parties in Myanmar to cease hostilities.

ASEAN welcomed unspecified practical measures to reduce tension in the South China Sea and prevent accidents and miscalculations, while urging all interested parties to suspend actions that could complicate and aggravate disputes.

The ministers described North Korea’s missile tests as worrying developments and called for peaceful solutions to the conflicts in Ukraine as well as Gaza, expressing concern about the dire humanitarian situation and “alarming casualties” in that country.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)